Facebook Connects Across the Continents

Finding my birth mother through an unexpected email.

Crystal Perkins
April 11, 2014

I was 25 years old, I had a new job in Collegiate Admissions, and I was traveling in my first rented car. I was living THE life. It was a chilly October afternoon and I was making my way back to Massachusetts, having traveled that eastern seaboard for work. I was excited to share with my family about what life was like on the road. I never dreamed that checking my email would change my world … so perfectly.

Opening up my email on my phone while at a rest stop was nothing new. I had just filled up with gas, grabbed a bottle of water, and was on my way back to my red Charger rental when the email refreshed and a name I hadn’t seen in years popped up. ROXANA. My heart skipped and I thought for sure this was some kind of a prank. I opened it, sat in my car, and continued in disbelief. It was all in Spanish. A language that while beautiful and one that I have a love for, I never completely mastered with five years in high school and three in college. I could make out names and a few words. Prank, I thought. Big prank. Mean Prank. Who would send me an impossible-to-read email from an account created in my biological mother’s name? Anyone, I thought. I had over the last several years posted any and all information I had about her on numerous websites and with a search for MY name, you could find any of this information.

I decided to let it go until I got home. Yeah, that lasted a few 30 seconds. I copied the email and texted it to my friends from my old teaching job, all of whom were either Spanish or Spanish-speaking. Then, I let it go. For real. I knew they would text me back the rest of the email, and I would have to be honest with myself that it wasn’t real. I arrived home, caught up with my mother and grandmother, and then headed home to my townhouse. The phone rang. My dear former colleague, Pam, was calling. I could hear in her voice excitement, “Wow, Jami. This is AMAZING!”

I remember asking her if it was real. “Do you have a sister?” I remember telling her yes. “Is her name Jen?” I remember starting to cry at some point because in all my years of knowing I was adopted, really, my whole life, I knew I’d want to find my biological mother. I knew I’d want to find my biological sister. Then, just as crazy as those ideas had seemed, here they were, posted from Facebook, ready for me to find.

Crystal Perkins

Crystal is a former content manager for Adoption.com. In her free time, she enjoys honing her outdoor photography skills, going on hikes, and hanging out with her husband.

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